Western Region Alliance Creates Commotion at COCOBOD

Ghana’s Cocoa sector regulator, COCOBOD is going through weird times as almost all the Deputy Chief Executives of the state entity have been rendered redundant.

There is the Western Region alliance between the Chief Executive, Mr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo and the Board Chairman, Mr. Peter Mac Manu as the two of them run the show together.

Apart from the Chief Executive, COCBOD has three Deputy Chief Executives who are in charge of Finance and Administration, Operations and Agronomy and Quality Control.
Per the murmurings within the corridors of COCOBOD, events are murky that the Deputy Chief Executives are totally frustrated.

It is emerging from the current happenings at COCOBOD that pushed Dr. Emmanuel Agyemang Dwomoh, who was the Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Agronomy and Quality Control to resign from the place.

What the Chief Executive and the Board Chairman are doing is that they always shift blame on the Deputy Chief Executives if they are unable to satisfy political apparatchiks, creating a kind of skirmishes between some top New Patriotic Party (NPP) persons and the Deputy Chief Executives.

Per the structure of COCBOD, the Deputy Chief Executives work directly under instructions from the Chief Executive and therefore cannot take decisions on the their own.

Insiders say that the Chief Executive and the Board Chairman have virtually succeeded in placing Mr. Fiifi Boafo, General Manager at the office of the Chief Executive, who also heads Communication Affairs above the Deputy Chief Executives.

Mr. Boafo is a direct beneficiary of the Western Region alliance at COCBOD as he also hails from that region.

The insiders say that he has been made powerful to the extent that he takes crucial decisions at the behest of the Chief Executive.

Crucial assignments that otherwise were to be performed by Deputy Chief Executives are now handled by Mr. Boafo on orders from the Chief Executive.

There are fears among some management members that there would be total breakdown in the chain of command if nothing is done about the current situation.

Insiders have it that some board members have been alerted of the ugly happenings but they are scared of raising issues in order not to be in the bad books of those pursuing the Western Region alliance.

More To Come!